


how erik learned how to find charles in a crowd

by dnbroughs



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Charles Is a Big Dorkface, Erik Has Feelings, Fluff, M/M, charles has braces!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, this is the most important thing i've written so far
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 09:25:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18870394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dnbroughs/pseuds/dnbroughs
Summary: Erik has always been aware of metal. Erik has also always been aware of Charles.





	how erik learned how to find charles in a crowd

Erik has always been aware of metal: the way it hums around him, the pull of the magnetic fields, buzzing concentrically around the cutlery in the drawers, the iron circling his veins. It was as natural as hearing the constant wailing of sirens and screech of tyres outside his window at three in the morning, or as familiar as the smell of latkes wafting from their tiny kitchen at Hanukkah. Metal was merely an extension of his own senses, primitive and necessary to navigate his everyday life. 

Erik has also always been aware of Charles: his dowdy cardigans, soft hair that curled at the ends when it was due a trim, the way his eyes lit up when he found something even remotely fascinating. Charles had been a constant presence throughout his whole life, from when they were young with scabby knees and an inexhaustible sources of energy, all the way through high school, sharing the awkward and often mortifying process of growing into their own skin (though Erik did a lot more growing than Charles, as Erik so often liked to remind him.)

Both were things he could not discernibly pin a start date on. His awareness for metal and Charles were seemingly infinite, lasting as long as he can remember, with no memories to suggest they were never there otherwise.

Erik can, however, pin an exact time and date on when he became aware of both at the same time.

He was fifteen. It was 12:32 pm. Erik was eating his lunch. Charles had told him earlier that day that he might be a bit late, mouth moving a hundred miles a minute as he mentioned something about an appointment that Sharon was taking him to and he was afraid he was going to miss the end of his History lesson because the subject they were studying was absolutely enthralling, and so on, and so forth. 

Over the past decade of knowing Charles, Erik had become particularly good at gleaning the necessary information from Charles’s rants whilst staying blissfully ear-blind to the rest of his rambling commentary. Today, though, he didn’t manage to extract an exact time, but it wasn’t a problem. Charles knew to meet Erik at their usual place under the bleachers.

He catalogued the metal around him as he waited, extending invisible fingers over the metal frame of the bleachers, the cars in the nearby parking lot, the coins in his pocket, an unfamiliar pair of wires, both bent to an arch and held down with individual squares of steel. They were approaching, nearer and nearer, approaching the spot where Erik sat, and he could it now, looming over him, coming right up close just as-

Just as Charles bloomed warm in his mind.

Whipping his head around, Erik caught Charles just as he was coming to sit down, greeting Erik with a tight lipped smile, and that wasn’t right. That never happened. First, Erik felt Charles in his mind, then Charles would grin at him, toothy and wide, and Erik would hope that Charles didn’t clock onto the warm surge of affection that prompted. That’s the way it always went.

Charles’s smile faltered, and Erik knew he had caught wind of the tail end of his thoughts, but it remained toothless and tight as he sat in front of Erik, pulling his backpack off his shoulders and letting it fall to the ground.

“Hello Erik,” Charles greeted at the same moment he decided to scratch his upper lip, effectively covering his mouth with his hand. When he spoke, it sounded like his mouth was full. Erik guessed at a filling, perhaps, but those strange metal bands were still there, Erik could feel them.

“Everything alright, Charles?” Erik asked as Charles unwrapped his sandwich, and the only reply he got was a nod as Charles opened his mouth to take a bite. It was then Erik caught a glimpse of silver, and everything clicked.

Before either of them knew what was happening, Erik’s hand was cupping Charles’s cheek and Charles had thrown his sandwich to the ground with a surprised squeak.

“Charles,” Erik said, voice even despite the fact his mind was a screaming mess as he felt a warm tongue brush against the metal. “Charles, are you wearing braces?”

A beat passed between them, nobody saying anything, and Erik thought he must be the biggest idiot in the universe because his hand was still on Charles’s face and he started to extract it when Charles burst into a fully blown babble.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know how to tell you, because I know how fine tuned you are to metal, especially steel, and I didn’t want you to feel like you had to hold back your awareness because it was stuck onto my teeth and-”

“Charles-”

“-the dentist, well orthodontist, I suppose, said I should hopefully only have them on for a year, maybe less, please God, and Christ they hurt like bugger, but it’ll be fine-”

“Charles-”

“-Cain had his put on a few months ago and they haven’t killed him yet, soft prat, so I think i’ll be okay, I have to go back every four weeks so I’m hoping I won’t miss any more history for appointments and I hope I get used to them soon because-”

“Charles!”

“-I can’t say there the most flattering and, oh who am I kidding, they’re bloody awful, aren’t they? I knew I should’ve asked for the ceramic ones, at least then you wouldn’t be able to see the bloody traintracks and  _ mmmf! _ ”

To this day, Erik still doesn’t know what came over him. Maybe it was the way the extra intrusion in his mouth made Charles’s lips look even more rosy and plush than usual, or maybe it was the fact that the melodic hum of the steel against the velvety heat of Charles’s mouth felt devine against Erik’s awareness, or maybe it was the past seven years of pining after his best friend that finally broke the dam. Whatever the cause, Erik gripped Charles’s face in both hands, trying to be mindful of his tender mouth, and crashed their lips together, effectively silencing Charles. 

The presence in his head was silent, and with a broken sense of devastation, Erik started to withdraw. This seemed to kick Charles into gear, as he was kissing back with enthusiasm, his mind light and airy inside Erik’s head, and Erik almost passed out at the soft moan that managed to slip past Charles’s lips.

Gently pulling away, Erik breathed heavily into the space between them, his thumb brushing gently against Charles’s burning cheek, his blue eyes staring dazedly back up at him.

“I like them.” Erik breathed. Charles finally gave him that toothy grin, braces and all. Erik had no choice but to kiss him again.

He missed the braces, when they eventually went. They allowed Erik to keep a tab on Charles, let him single him out in a crowd with ease. Sometimes, he ran invisible fingertips over the wires and brackets, just like the way Charles was always lounging at the edges of his consciousness: just because he could. It was intimate, tracking metal that was so closely connected to Charles, and he would admit, albeit grudgingly, to mourning the loss of the braces when Charles had them taken off, though he supposed Charles’s even wider grin now that his teeth were straight was an alright consolation.

Charles’s watch allowed him to follow Charles around after that, but it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t personal, and it wasn’t nearly as satisfying.

The only thing that came close came ten years after Charles had had his braces put on, when Erik slid a thin band of gold onto the fourth finger of Charles left hand. Just like the first time, he kissed Charles until he grinned, running his powers over the mellowed thrum of the gold. When Erik pulled away, and Charles grinned brightly up at him, Erik had no choice but to kiss him again.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on tumblr @ toziurs !


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